According to the professor of biological science at the University of Cyprus and head of the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology, Leondios Kostrikis said that a new strain of COVID-19 was found. This new strain is the combination of the Delta and Omicron variants.
On Friday in a televised interview he said, “there are currently omicron and delta co-infectious and we found this strain that is a combination of these two”. The new variant is named “deltacron” as the study suggests omicron-like genetic signatures are found within the delta genomes.
Professor and his team have so far studied 25 cases whose statistical analysis shows the relative frequency in which the combined infection is higher in patients’ hospitalization due to covid-19 when compared to those who are not being hospitalized.
On Jan 7, the reports of the 25 deltacron cases were sent to GISAID, the international database that tracks changes in the virus. Professor further added that they will see in the near future if this strain is more pathological or it will prevail or is more contagious.
According to his personal view on the new variant, he said that it will also be displaced by the highly contagious omicron variant.
